Miyahuaapan (Mdz52r)

Miyahuaapan (Mdz52r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Miyahuahuaapan includes two principal elements, a maize plant flower (miyahuatl) in yellow and, under that, a cross-section of a canal or water channel, which brings forth the phonetic element in the stem of apantli (canal), i.e. the locative suffix -apan, meaning on the water of. The maize or corn blossom (also spelled miyahuatl) involves two sprigs, each one curling out to the right or left. Attached to each smooth sprig are small round shapes. The cut-away of the canal is a typical trapezoidal shape with a yellow liner on the sides and bottom, and the water contained by the liner is turquoise blue with horizontal, wavy, black lines of varying thickness, suggesting movement or current. Splashing of the top of the water, typically, are two white turbinate shells and a water droplet/bead.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Notice the very similar maize blossom/tassel on the compound glyph for Ohuapan (below, right). As Karttunen has pointed out, the canal provides the locative suffix and is not meant specifically to refer to the water in the landscape. Rather, she points to a lake or other body of water. The canal glyph is used as a phonetic for the locative suffix "on the water," and it can be any body of water.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

miahuapā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Miyahuaapan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Corn, Maize

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (places)

Shells

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

curving, curvy, curved

horizontal

cross-sectioned object

trapezoidal

wavy

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

maize tassels, corn plant blooms, flowers, water channels, canals, water, shells, agua, conchas, canales, flores, borlas de maíz, floraciones de plantas de maíz

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

miyahua(tl), the maize plant tassel and flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/miyahuatl
apan(tli), water channel or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
pan(tli), furrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pantli
-apan (locative suffix), on the water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-pan (locative suffix), on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"On Maize Flower Lake" (or other body of water) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Canal of the Maize Flower" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 191)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"En el Lago de la Flor del Maíz"

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 52 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 114 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).